Second Life Has Landed At China Officially With RTMAsia

I wrote a post back in January, asking why Second Life is not officially localized in China yet. Ten months later since then, HiPiHi has become a super star in the virtual world even it is still in private test; NOVOKing is not really following Second Life’s philosophy but it has started private test and has also shown its potential in Chinese market; uWorld is still a un-discovered world but it will launch its private test soon. Finally, I can confirm that Second Life has its office in Beijing.

Thanks to the 3rd China Blogger Conference where I met lot’s of cool guys who are playing a very important roles in Chinese blogosphere, it was such a surprise for me that I found a Second Life logo printed right on a friend’s business card! He is working for RTMAsia and his job is to lead the Second Life into China!

RTMAsia, as the leading providers of Asian business acceleration services to global technology companies has signed an agreement with Linden Lab®, the developer Second Life® to facilitate the go-to-market of Second Life in China. RTMAsia will represent for Linden Lab in China and is responsible for the development of business partnerships, management of business operations and liaison with media and industry bodies. So how will Second Life be localized in China? Will we see a Chinese version of it?

I don’t really think Chinese are ready for the 3D virtual life yet, in most of their eyes the Virtual World is just another term for the online 3D game. Also, I don’t think there will be a competition among these virtual worlds, at least at this stage where most of these worlds are still under testing. They will together train the market, but at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves, we have a Unique First Life, so how many Second Life do we really need?